52 Times Britain was a Bellend: The History You Didn't Get Taught At School

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Nuance is a definite casualty within this book. These events can't exactly be excused, but giving the rationale behind the actions would be helpful, as Felton's prose makes it look as if Britain was being capricious at best, or malevolent for the sake of it, at worst. If he had actually gone into things in any depth then it would be easier to learn from his work. A very amusing - at times laugh out loud funny - account of the ‘history we’re not taught at school’. As the title suggests, the author takes us through a list of the bad things we’ve done throughout history - including the often insane reasons we use to justify them.

TIMES BRITAIN WAS A BELLEND will complete your knowledge of this sceptred isle in ways you never expected. So if you’ve ever wondered how we put the ‘Great’ in ‘Great Britain’, wonder no more . . . Lots of interesting and no doubt accurate gobbets of history. But it's a depressing, wearing listen and don't buy it expecting comedy. The narrator is a serious let down, though. More so than the material, he comes across as patronising and annoying.Ever think the history you were taught in school was a little bit..., clean? Suspiciously made us out to be paragons of virtue? Think that maybe, just maybe, there may be more to it than that? A collection of slightly random stories of horrible histories, light on depth and detail and unashamedly skirting over each subject, using too much profanity to remain amusing. TIMES BRITAIN WAS A BELLEND will complete your knowledge of this sceptred isle in ways you never expected. So if you've ever wondered how we put the 'Great' in 'Great Britain', wonder no more . . .

It’s about time I learnt what my history classes at school failed to teach me. I read an article in the Guardian recently that pointed out that most British history syllabuses completely skip over Britain’s role in its colonies and the slave trade, putting the onus on glorifying British Abolitionists such as Wilberforce. As we studied only one short module on the Agrarian and Industrial Revolution and the Peninsular Wars, even Wilberforce was relegated to a single sentence, shared with Shaftesbury and child labour reforms. Obviously I have learnt more in the course of my lifetime, but only in the past few years has it occurred to me just how little I know, given I’m interested in history. We went to a small museum in the north of England which had a major display about the slave trade and trading triangle and I was amazed because I had never heard of that and never associated slavery with Great Britain. My viewpoint has been changing and I think this slim and irreverent volume may teach me a great deal about the reality. For anyone with a good knowledge of history, you won't learn anything new in here. For those who would like a deeper and more nuanced look at these events, you'll also be disappointed. A TV series based on the book by James Felton, which focuses on the "painfully funny history of Britain you were never taught at school". However, if you’re not in the same boat as me (or indeed, even if you are) please see the following reasons for why I think this book is a must read;

Summary

Perfect combination of historical fact and wit - a really great insight into history that isn't typically explored in the classroom. It presents history concisely and humorously. History is often seen as dry and presented in these tomes wider than your hand. Each of the 52 items are presented in a few paragraphs. The tone is lighthearted and it’s entertaining. Perhaps it detracts from the seriousness of the issues ever so slightly, but I heartily enjoyed it nonetheless. This is only a short list of "highlights" shall we say. The delusion of "British Greatness" that we tell ourselves is the cause of our own current crises and won't be fixed until as a society and a culture, we stop lying to ourselves. We've been lying for a long time though.

Waste of time. I only lasted a few tales. Each “tale” lasts about two minutes, littered with unnecessary foul language. Disgusting considering the title would appeal to older kids.A good subject ruined by a wet pompose little bellend. Who comes across as lecturing you and unfairly criticising people. People who achieved great things good and bad. If people followed this terds example we would still live in cave out of fear a house would offend. Typically a Guardian muppet It pulled no punches on the truth and I LOVE how blunt it was about, let’s be honest, how much of a proper bellend Britain has been through the ages. Jingoistic notions of British exceptionalism and misguided notions of a benign British Empire have been fostered by populist demagogues like Johnson. Including starting wars with China when they didn't buy enough of our class A drugs, inventing a law so we didn't have to return objects we'd blatantly stolen from other countries, casually creating muzzles for women and almost going to war over a crime committed by a pig! All those flag shaggers pontificating about sovereignty and how they personally liberated Western Europe at the end of the second world war need to read this, particularly around Britain's role in drug wars, concentration camps, and recompensing slave owners rather than slaves at the end of slavery.

I’m already a bit of a history nerd, so I didn’t need this book to magically make me fall in love with the subject. The stories use facts without context. Just like a journalist using a single sentence sound bite over an article. There was a bit of unnecessary swearing but it was very informative (or at least will give you something to further research).Several interesting anecdotes, although each is treated only very superficially. This is not a history book, and I worry the research may not have extended much beyond Wikipedia. Britain may have done some good things, but we also did some bad things - in the case of the Indian famine even while we were doing good thigs (helping to defeat Hitler) we were doing bad things (letting millions die). If we cannot critically examine our own pasts as nations and as people, then we deny ourselves the scope for growth and instead fall into the hubris of unthinking pride.